Best of Artemis, week ending April 17th 2022

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending April 17th 2022, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. To ensure you never miss a thing subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates or get our email alerts for every article we publish.

Ten most read articles on Artemis.bm, week ending April 17th 2022:

1. Swiss Re gets $1.15bn stop-loss cover in hybrid cat bond / loan transaction
   Swiss Re has completed a landmark hybrid bank financing and insurance-linked securities (ILS) transaction, utilising its Matterhorn Re Ltd. special purpose insurer to issue catastrophe bond notes alongside a loan arrangement with J.P. Morgan, to secure $1.15 billion of all-lines of business stop-loss financing and protection from the capital markets.
2. Ida insolvencies continue, as Florida runs out of road: ALIRT
   Property insurers on the hurricane exposed coast of the United States are increasingly at-risk of failure due to “solvency-threatening storms”, with the latest insolvency being Lighthouse in Louisiana, but Florida continues to be the most challenged state.
3. UCITS catastrophe bond fund growth slows in Q1. GAM extends lead
   Assets under management (AUM) of the main UCITS catastrophe bond funds as a group increased during the first-quarter of 2022, but perhaps a little surprisingly growth has slowed somewhat, despite new issuance having been buoyant.
4. Blackstone sees cat bonds & ILS as real estate risk transfer options
   Investment giant Blackstone is increasingly focusing on the need to manage risks within its various real estate companies and assets, using risk transfer solutions, insurance and instruments such as catastrophe bonds and insurance-linked securities (ILS).
5. RenRe’s Fontana casualty/specialty JV has flexibility to be market-facing
   The Fontana Holdings third-party capitalised casualty and specialty reinsurance focused joint venture vehicle launched by Bermudian reinsurer RenaissanceRe will have the flexibility to become market-facing and write business directly for counterparties, it seems.
6. Reinsurer underlying ROE’s still trail rising cost of capital: Gallagher Re
   There has been further improvement in the underwriting performance of the cohort of reinsurance firms tracked by Gallagher Re, but while their underlying combined ratio has fallen below 100 for the first time since 2014, their underlying returns on equity remain depressed.
7. Kin bolsters surplus by $20m to meet Demotech requirements
   We’ve learned that direct-to-consumer and fast-growing insurtech Kin bolstered the surplus capital of its main carrier operating in Florida by $20 million in order to meet Demotech’s requirements for its rating affirmation recently.
8. Global catastrophe & weather insured losses hit $14bn in Q1 2022: Aon
   Insurance and reinsurance industry losses from global natural catastrophes and severe weather are estimated to be around $14 billion for the first-quarter of 2022, making it the sixth Q1 in a row where insured losses have exceeded $10 billion.
9. Swiss Re stop-loss deal a “win-win”, ILS notes oversubscribed: Rüede
   Swiss Re’s landmark hybrid bank financing and insurance-linked securities (ILS) backed whole account stop-loss transaction was a “win-win” for the reinsurer and the investors backing the deal, with the ILS component of the arrangement oversubscribed due to its popularity, Philipp Rüede explained to Artemis.
10. Florida property insurance market “in collapse”, special session uncertain
    Lawmakers and insurance market interests continue to push for a special legislative session in Florida, to raise and enact property insurance reforms to prevent the local marketplace from continuing down a path towards total “collapse,” but there’s a lot of uncertainty still over whether it will happen.

This is not every article published on Artemis during the last week, just the most popular among our readers over the last seven days. There were 23 new articles published in the last week. To ensure you always stay up to date with Artemis and never miss a story subscribe to our weekly email newsletter which is delivered every Wednesday.

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